5 for Friday – The Best of Darryl Belfry

Five for Friday - the curated list of hockey links to help you put an end to the last day of the week. Nothing too serious... just some hockey blurbs, for the hockey fan in you.

The man is a hockey genius. Behold a small seminar where Daryll drops hockey knowledge by the pound. It sounds so simple when he says it, but it’s absolutely changed the way I look at players and “goals” at this point. In 3 parts – because Youtube.

While this will give you a good idea of who the guys is, and what he does for players… there’s a comment he makes at about 3:08 of this video that I think is uber-relevant to the Colorado Avalanche right now. The one about pattern recognition and your processing speed as a player to know how to react.

More Belfry nuggets of knowledge in this one. Lot’s of talk about time and space.

Another video where it’s as if he’s speaking to the Avs defense. Pay attention around 2:05

In a similar tone to the previous video but with a nice ra-ra finishing touch. I wish the Avs would have hired this guy.

If you don’t appreciate the hell out of this man, I don’t think you appreciate hockey beyond the beer, fights and goal songs. This is a unique and deep dive into what really makes great players tick. I’ve learned so much from this guy and still can’t get enough. I want him to analyze the Avs and give me (and the coaches) a full report of what kind of player each Avs player is and what skills they need to work on. I have a hunch, it would be enlightening!

Honorable mentions:

This is so interesting. I’ll be looking to apply it when watching the Avs pay to see how thrives and struggles with this.

“Offense is about dictating, it’s not about being in reaction,” Belfry said, adding that one area where all players can be trained to improve is in changing speeds. Belfry argues the NHL’s number one skill is not max speed, but the ability to alter yours. By working on a player’s skating patterning, any player can quickly learn. “They already have very high skating skill sets but oftentimes their patterning doesn’t lend itself well to change speed that’s going to be necessary in the NHL,” he said.